Buffs picked 9th in preseason basketball poll

Yesterday the Big XII preseason basketball coaches poll was released, and the talented CU team was picked to finish 9th. 9th! The Young Buffs were severely underrated last year, but I chalked that up to no one knowing who Alec Burks was before the season started. Now that everyone, including the national media who tabbed him and Corey Higgins on the preseason Wooden Award watch list, has seen him and his teammates there should be no reason to expect these Buffs to be bottom dwellers; yet here we are.

I don't know what could have brought these coaches to look over this team. Maybe it's concern over the new head coach. Maybe it's frustration that the Buffs and their often abysmal basketball program are running off to a new conference leaving them with tougher schedules. Maybe it's doubt that CU will ever amount to much in basketball. You never can know what these coaches are thinking when they fill out these polls (and many of them just let some GA do it). All I know is that many of those coaches are going to be eating their votes with a side of crow come February when they have to come marching into Coors on a freezing Wednesday evening.
(C'mon Tad, shove it back in their faces. From: The BDC)

I took a quick look at the schedule (I'll have a much more in depth preview sometime in early November) just to get a quick feel for what we can expect come conference play. What I came up with was a minimum 8 wins with 4 for sure losses and 4 toss-up games. If you assume a split of the tossup games then CU ends up with 10 conference wins which would be good enough for 5th in the conference last year. Thorburn in the BDC says he thinks sixth. Either way it's a whole hell of a lot better than 9th.

While I'm on the subject, our non conference schedule is pathetically easy. CU should go a minimum of 12-3. At Georgia and the 2 games at the Las Vegas Classic are the only games that would be acceptable losses, and the Georgia game is a stretch. Lets say we beat Georgia in Athens and go 13-2 prior to Big XII play; combined with a 10-6 5th place mark in conference, a 23-8 record should not only get CU into the dance, but should also get the Buffs a decent seed and venue (maybe a 6 or a 7 west of the Mississippi River?). Just don't hold me to that...

Here are my Big XII quick glance predictions:

Wins:
Ok. St. - home
Nebraska - away
Oklahoma - away
Iowa St. - home
Texas A&M - home
Texas Tech - away
Iowa St. - away
Nebraska - home

Losses:
Kansas St. - away
Baylor - away
Missouri - away
Kansas - away

Tossups:
Missouri - home
Kansas - home
Kansas St. - home
Texas - home